Tom Coates
Encyclopedia
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
who has been writing plasticbag.org since 1999. He has written extensively about social software
Social software
Social software applications include communication tools and interactive tools. Communication tools typically handle the capturing, storing and presentation of communication, usually written but increasingly including audio and video as well. Interactive tools handle mediated interactions between a...
, the web of data, location services and future media distribution and launched the Fire Eagle
Fire Eagle
Fire Eagle is a Yahoo! owned service that acts as a store for a user's location. It was created at Yahoo Brickhouse by a team which included among others Tom Coates, Simon Willison, and Seth Fitzsimmons....
location service for Yahoo in 2008.
Coates was educated at the Norwich School
Norwich School (educational institution)
Norwich School is an independent school located in Norwich, United Kingdom. It is one of the oldest schools in the world, with a traceable history to 1096, and is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.It is a fee-paying, co-educational day school and has one of the best...
, the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
and the London College of Printing. He worked at the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
running an R&D
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
team for BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
, and before that he developed the geo-coded online community UpMyStreet Conversations. He has also developed online communities for emap
EMAP
Emap Limited is a British media company, specialising in the production of business-to-business magazines, and the organisation of business events and conferences...
and was Production Editor of Time Out's website. His professional written work includes film reviews for the BBC, contributions to Time Out city guides and comment pieces on technology for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
.
From late 2005 until 14 May 2010 Coates worked for Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
, initially for the Tech Development team with Caterina Fake
Caterina Fake
Caterina Fake is an American businesswoman and internet entrepreneur.Fake was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall, attended Smith College, and graduated from Vassar College in 1991....
, Jeremy Zawodny and Simon Willison
Simon Willison
Simon Willison is a programmer and co-founder of the social conference directory Lanyrd. Originating from the UK, he is also a consultant on OpenID and client- and server-side Web development, a frequent public speaker and a co-creator of the Django Web framework...
. and later as Head of Product for the Brickhouse product incubator.
Coates' weblog has won a number of Bloggies including Best European Weblog (2001 and 2002), Best Gay/Lesbian/Trans weblog (2001), Best British or Irish Weblog (2004 and 2005) Lifetime Achievement (2005). He also runs the online subcultural community Barbelith - initially inspired by the work of comic book writer Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
.
He is also on the advisory council of the Open Rights Group
Open Rights Group
The Open Rights Group is a UK-based organisation that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms by campaigning on digital rights issues, acting as a media clearinghouse service putting journalists in touch with experts, and by fostering a community of grassroots activists...
.
Coates co-organised the London Hack Day
Hack Day
A hack day is an event where developers, designers and people with ideas gather to build 'cool stuff' - the events now run all over the world and are organised by a wide variety of people, companies, and even government departments....
in June 2007 with help from Matthew Cashmore from backstage.bbc.co.uk
Backstage.bbc.co.uk
backstage.bbc.co.uk is the brand name of the BBC's developer network which operated between May 2005 and December 2010.-Purpose:...
.
The Evening Standard named Coates as one of the Most Influential 1000 Londoners in October 2007 and again in October 2008.
In March 2008, Coates launched the Fire Eagle
Fire Eagle
Fire Eagle is a Yahoo! owned service that acts as a store for a user's location. It was created at Yahoo Brickhouse by a team which included among others Tom Coates, Simon Willison, and Seth Fitzsimmons....
location brokerage service for Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
at ETech
Emerging Technology Conference
The O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference is O'Reilly Media's premier conference about the new technologies that are on the O'Reilly Radar. O'Reilly defines its core business not as books, conferences, or online publishing, though it does all three, but as "changing the world by spreading the...
. The service was opened up to the general public on August 12, 2008. Despite being well regarded as a significant contribution to location sharing and online privacy, the service was generally unsuccessful. Tom Coates has since left Yahoo.
He is an advisor for several start-ups including Lanyrd, the social conference directory created by Simon Willison
Simon Willison
Simon Willison is a programmer and co-founder of the social conference directory Lanyrd. Originating from the UK, he is also a consultant on OpenID and client- and server-side Web development, a frequent public speaker and a co-creator of the Django Web framework...
and Natalie Downe. and founder of Product Club, a company that bills itself as doing "New Product Development and Invention".